Chapter summaries Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng Kylie Lee Baker

Chapter Nine: The Crypt Penance and Hallucination

⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.

Summary

Auntie Lois tells Cora she can return to church service if she cleans part of the cathedral and talks with Father Thomas. Cora meets Father Thomas on Sunday evening at the church. He leads her to a redbrick building that houses a family crypt, explaining that it was once open to the public but now remains closed due to the pandemic. While showing her the Holloway family vault, he mentions that some congregation members have complained about Cora attending mass because they fear catching COVID. Cora feels a surge of anger, an emotion she usually suppresses. She recalls the traumatic death of her sister Delilah, who was pushed in front of a train.

Left alone to sweep, Cora notices bare footprints in the dust and hears a door close. She tries to leave but finds the entrance jammed. After sweeping the footprints away, new ones appear right in front of her. She tests the floor with her finger and feels real dust, concluding the footprints are genuine but unsure what they mean. When the door opens, she sees two Father Thomases standing at opposite ends of the hallway, both calling her name. She cups her ears and imagines Delilah standing in her pink dress, pointing not at either Father Thomas but at a stone door. Cora then wakes to find the real Father Thomas kneeling beside her; she had passed out from heat. He helps her up and opens the door Delilah pointed to, revealing a janitor closet. Father Thomas declares her forgiven. Cora walks home feeling that God does not know her name.

Key Events

  • Auntie Lois arranges for Cora to clean the cathedral crypt as penance.
  • Father Thomas shows Cora the Holloway family vault and mentions congregation complaints.
  • Cora admits she dislikes her aunt discussing her job and recalls Delilah’s death.
  • She is left alone to sweep; the entrance door jams.
  • Cora sees bare footprints that reappear after she sweeps them away.
  • She hallucinates two Father Thomases and an imaginary Delilah pointing to a door.
  • Father Thomas returns, finds Cora collapsed, and opens the door to reveal a storage closet.
  • Father Thomas says Cora is forgiven; she feels spiritually disconnected.

Character Development

Cora Zeng experiences a rare moment of anger when Father Thomas reveals that parishioners fear her because she is Chinese. She usually deflects anger inward, but this chapter shows her struggling to maintain her “Good Christian Girl” persona. Her hallucination of two Father Thomases and of Delilah underscores her fragmented mental state. She also confronts her dependence on external forgiveness and her inability to forgive herself. The chapter deepens her grief over Delilah’s death and her sense of being unforgivable.

Father Thomas is portrayed as well-meaning but naïve. He acknowledges the congregation’s racism without challenging it, and his gesture of forgiveness feels hollow to Cora. His role as a spiritual guide is complicated by the fact that he cannot fully understand Cora’s trauma.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

  • The Crypt: The underground vault represents death, memory, and the buried secrets Cora carries. The red emergency lights and moldy air create an unsettling, liminal space where the line between life and death blurs.
  • Footprints: The mysterious footprints symbolize Cora’s unresolved trauma and the presence of the past that she cannot sweep away. They also hint at the hungry ghosts Yifei mentioned earlier.
  • Hallucination: Cora’s vision of two Father Thomases and a faceless Delilah reflects her inability to trust her own perceptions and her deep need for guidance. Delilah pointing to a closet instead of an escape underscores Cora’s fear that her own mind leads her astray.
  • Fear of the Other: Father Thomas’s admission of congregation complaints about COVID fear ties racism to exclusion. Cora is treated as a threat because of her ethnicity, reinforcing her alienation from the church community.
  • Forgiveness vs. Guilt: Cora’s penance is completed, but she does not feel forgiven. The chapter questions whether religious absolution can address deep psychological pain.

Why This Chapter Matters

This chapter is pivotal for Cora’s psychological journey. It introduces the crypt setting, which becomes a space where her grief and trauma surface in near-supernatural form. The hallucination suggests that Cora’s mind is becoming increasingly unreliable, setting up a possible paranormal thread or a deeper exploration of her mental health. The conversation about congregation complaints makes the novel’s critique of racism explicit, connecting Cora’s personal isolation to societal prejudice. The chapter ends with Cora feeling no closer to redemption, leaving her spiritual arc unresolved.

Study Questions and Answers

1. Why does Cora feel angry when Father Thomas tells her about the congregation complaints, and how does this contrast with her earlier attempts to suppress anger? Cora’s anger arises because she realizes that people see her as fearsome despite the real monsters who killed her sister. Earlier she believed anger always turned into anguish, but here she feels a sharp, directed rage. The contrast shows that the external racism and the memory of Delilah’s death are finally breaking through her self-erasing defenses.

2. What is the significance of the bare footprints Cora sees? Are they real or a hallucination? The footprints are ambiguous. Cora touches the floor and feels a real sticky surface, arguing for their reality. But evidence of touch can be unreliable, and the footprints disappear and reappear in a way that mirrors her unreliable perception. They likely represent the lingering presence of the dead—perhaps Delilah or another ghost—that Cora both fears and needs to acknowledge.

3. How does Cora’s imagined Delilah fail her in this chapter, and what does that reveal about Cora’s internal state? Imagined Delilah points to a door that leads to a janitor closet rather than an escape. This indicates that Cora’s subconscious is not a reliable guide; it leads her to dead ends (literally). The failure deepens Cora’s sense of being lost and confirms her belief that she always makes wrong choices. It also suggests that Delilah’s memory is more about Cora’s guilt than about actual guidance.

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